Carol Namara (2Left) and James King Bagyenzi (C) receive a dummy cheque for their film, Ija that won best film in western region. Photo | Julius Byamukama
Ija, a short film co-written and co-produced by James King Bagyenzi and Carol Namara recently won the first ever western Uganda short film festival competition as Uganda Film Festival celebrates 10.
While accepting the award, Bagyenzi said awarding and recognising local film content will enhance film makers’ visibility in the region and that combining efforts with Namara is why they came up with a great content.
“We are very excited about winning this western regional short film festival competition; finally our work has been recognised on the national scene. Carol contributed a lot of expertise and for us this is just the beginning, there is a lot more coming,” said Bagyenzi.
Namara added that winning the award was a clear validation that they made a great choice: “We put in a lot of hard work. This is a project we started from our hearts, we travelled through western Uganda to select a few things. Ija literally means come and watch the beauty of western Uganda and we aimed at showing the flora and fauna of western Uganda.”
Brian Mulondo, the local content marketing manager at Multichoice, said he was impressed by western Uganda filmmakers who showed commitment to participate in the competition, adding that there is need for skill refining since the industry in the region is still young.
“The desire for people to put their work out there is impressive and I think it is the first step to being great,” said Mulondo, adding: “Our film industry is still young, we need to refine these skills and in the future we shall organise master classes specifically for western Uganda.”
Juliane Mweheire, the director industry affairs and content development at Uganda Communications Commission, said what they did in western Uganda was regional representation of what they have been doing at the Uganda Film Festival in the last 10 years, adding that there is a need for regional film makers to formalise their industry and reap from their work.